15 rebels die, 10k civilians flee military offensives in Liguasan marsh
Local News • 05:59 AM Mon Jun 11, 2018
189
By:
Ferdinandh Cabrera
Civilians from Barangay Bago-inged, Pikit troop to the town center to evade Army offensives vs. BIFF. (FC)
PIKIT, North
Cotabato – More than 10,000 civilians fled the on-going military offensives
against lawless elements in Liguasan marshland Sunday in the borders of
Maguindanao and North Cotabato.
The military said
the air and ground assaults was meant against Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom
Fighters (BIFF), a Maguindanao-based armed group that pledged allegiance to
ISIS.
From the interior
villages here, thousands of civilians, mostly Maguindanaons, with their
valuables, children and work animals in tow hurriedly left their communities at
the break of dawn Sunday following an overnight bombardment by the 6th
Infantry Division.
Carabao-drawn
carts, four-wheeled multi-cab loaded with the civilian’ valuables were seen
heading toward the town center here as military ground assaults against BIFF
Commander Bungos started at past 6 a.m.
Residents said
the exodus was borne out of fear a bigger skirmishes between freedom (BIFF)
and the military was about to unfold.
The military offensive
was launched in the marshland in the borders of SK Pendatun town in Maguindanao
and Pikit in North Cotabato.
They came
from five adjoining villages, more than 10,000 civilians, Tahira Kalantungan,
Pikit municipal disaster officer, said of the civilians who fled their homes in
the villages of Buliok, Talitay, Bago-inged, Barongis and Rajamuda.
Their concern
is fear, they sense something big is about to happen, she said when asked why
the civilians fled.
The
Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM-HEART) also attended to hundreds of civilians who fled the
adjoining towns of Pagalungan, Montawal and SK Pendatun, communities situated
beside the marshland.
An evacuee from
Barangay Rajamuda told reporters they were breaking the fast at past 3 a.m.
when they heard of airplanes passing by above them. Out of fear, a resident of
Bago-Inged has collapsed.
I and my
children were crying when we started hearing loud explosions, I could not carry
all my children as we escaped, I could hardly breathe due to fear, said Normina
Guiamaludin, 27, who has four kids.
Another
evacuee from Barangay Buliok, Saguiara Andong, 49, said she and her family had just
completed breaking the fast when we hear sounds of helicopters hovering over
us.
We saw three
helicopters hovering and then dropping bombs in the marshland, my children
chilled so we decided to flee when the sun rises, Andong said in Filipino.
Andong said
many work animals and other valuables were left by fleeing residents and feared
they have lost them.
Brig. Gen.
Cirilito Sobejana, 6th Infantry Division chief, said target of the
operation was a BIFF bomb factory in the marshland. He said a surveillance
video confirmed the existence of bomb-making area.
Sobejana said
the operation was coordinated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
in accordance to the GPH-MILF ceasefire mechanism.
He said 15
BIFF members were killed as confirmed by Army ground troops who operated following
the airstrikes. Eight others were
injured and two were arrested by elements of the 33rd Infantry
Battalion.
Sobejana, who
also chairs the Army led Joint Task Force Central, said the civilians who are
against the activities of tHe BIFF have tipped off the military on the armed
group’s location.
No civilian
casualties as a result of the operation, Sobejana said. (Ferdinandh Cabrera).